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"Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia remains unconcerned by surging U.S. shale output, which threatens to eat into OPEC's market share, and sees no need to cut production to support prices, its deputy oil minister said on Wednesday.

"We need to make sure that the world economy comes out decisively on a growth pattern and, if that can be established, I think that the world economic growth will be sufficient to handle growth from all sorts - shale oil, shale gas, tight oil and including renewable," Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz told a conference in Dubai.

"The world economy over the long term will need every contribution of every source of energy available," he said. "The kingdom welcomes new resources of energy supplies, as they are needed.""

"Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala sovereign wealth fund said its aerospace unit aims to become a risk-sharing partner of Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. on future plane programs as it develops an engineering-design capability.
Mubadala Aerospace plans to expand from build-to-print activities into design-to-build and take responsibility for 10 or 20 percent of an entire aircraft, executive director Homaid Abdulla Al Shemmari said today in an interview in Dubai.
At the Dubai Air Show this week Mubadala signed deals worth $5 billion to supply parts to Boeing and Airbus and struck similar deals with General Electric Co. and Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc covering engine elements. The company, which aims to supply components to Boeing’s new 777X, will team up with the manufacturers to establish research and development centers at Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Khalifa University, Al Shemmari said."

"Hungary’s competition watchdog says it has fined 11 banks a total of 9.48 billion forints ($43 million) for collusion in connection with their clients’ repayments of mortgages denominated in foreign currencies.

Tuesday’s ruling by the Competition Office says that in late 2011 the banks colluded to curb new loan options that would have helped clients take advantage of a government program allowing holders of mortgages in foreign currencies to make a one-time payment canceling their loans at exchange rates far below market levels. Most of the exchange rate losses had to be swallowed by the banks.

Some of the lenders, including OTP Bank, which was fined 3.9 billion forints, and Erste Bank (fined 1.7 billion forints) said they would appeal the ruling."

DUBAI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Egypt's main stock index jumped 1.4 percent on Wednesday to its highest level since January 2011 after a major political protest in the capital ended relatively peacefully, while other Gulf markets were mixed.

Egyptian police fired teargas to drive protesters out of Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration commemorating 42 protesters who were killed two years ago as they opposed the government that took power after Hosni Mubarak's downfall.

However, no fatalities were reported on Tuesday and police only intervened shortly before midnight after an otherwise relatively quiet rally."

"Greece is being relegated from a developed to an emerging stock market. Lex’s Oliver Ralph and Joseph Cotterill discuss whether Greek stocks are worthy of being treated as emerging with the country’s poor expected growth outlook."'via Blog this'

"For Russia's current model of economic growth to work, oil prices need to grow by $20 to $30 annually, according to former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. But no changes can be expected until the Russian government gets its act together, Kudrin said.
Alexei Kudrin, Russia's finance minister from 2000 to 2011, said the current problems of Russia's economy are a result of an economic model heavily dependent on oil revenues.
In an interview with the Moskovskij Komsomolets daily, Kudrin said he believed there are a host of other problems exacerbating the budget's excessive reliance on oil revenues.
"The economic growth we witnessed in the 2000s was also based on a growth in demand for commodities on Russia's domestic market, which was only partially driven by a boost in oil production. The main reason behind it was the growing oil prices,” he said. “However, the oil prices stopped growing and so did the domestic market demand. As a consequence, production growth also ground to a standstill, and our economic model stopped working.""

"Ukraine, eastern Europe’s least-creditworthy borrower, faces $15.3 billion of debt payments in the next two years as it weighs the fate of a jailed ex-prime minister and whether to fix its future with the European Union.

The cost to insure Ukraine’s dollar debt against non-payment for five years with credit-default swaps rose 15 basis points to 966 at 12:41 p.m. in Kiev. The yield on Ukraine’s April 2023 dollar notes rose to 9.63 percent, compared with 7.40 percent on similar-maturity debt from Egypt, both carrying the same B- junk rating at Standard & Poor’s.

Ukraine must decide whether to release ex-Premier Yulia Tymoshenko for medical care abroad by an EU summit on Nov. 28-29, a condition to sign a free-trade pact with the 28-member bloc. Pressure is also building because the nation, whose currency reserves have fallen by a quarter in the last year, is locked out of global bond markets, according to Fitch Ratings."

If Poland had a public face over the last six years, it was that of Jacek Rostowski, the occasionally acerbic British-born finance minister who helped pilot Poland through two waves of economic crisis.

All change as of Wednesday, following the cabinet reshuffle by premier Donald Tusk which sees 62-year-old Rostowski replaced by 38-year-old Mateusz Szczurek (pictured), CEE economist for ING Bank of the Netherlands.

The Polish zloty and the Warsaw Stock Exchange were down slightly in early trading, but financial markets basically shrugged off the news. That is a sign of Rostowski’s success in changing investor perceptions about Poland – from a fast growing but unstable country into one of the best performing economies in the EU."

"Lubna Qassim, a lawyer who left the private sector in the UK to help transform the economic laws in her native United Arab Emirates, says UAE recognises the need to reform to be a successful global player.

Lubna Qassim

Qassim says: "UAE is moving in the right direction and it has diversified its economy – creating jobs, reducing inflation and increasing GDP – whilst some of our neighbouring countries are in a turmoil, UAE continues to reform its institutions and health, education and legislative systems so it can be one of the top governments of the world."

Qassim was director of the department of economic legislation at the UAE ministry of economy from late 2010 to June 2013 and is deciding where to go next. She visited the UK in October as part of a future international leaders programme organised by the Foreign Office."

MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) – The operating license of a major Russian bank has been revoked for false data reporting, low-quality loans and loss of capital, Russia’s central bank said on Wednesday.
Master Bank, the 41st largest bank in Russia in terms of deposits by individuals, has also been involved in questionable financial operations and failed to properly combat money laundering, the Bank of Russia, the nation’s central bank, said in a press release.
Russia’s Deposit Insurance Agency said that clients’ financial assets in the bank are insured and customers will be able to begin to withdraw money from their accounts no later than December 4.
Master Bank branches in Moscow are closed and its ATMs are not functioning due to a “technical error,” Prime news agency reported."

"India is a country where GDP per capita is less than $1,500 a year, and where people have big aspirations and are often overqualified for their jobs.

So it comes as a surprise to read new research showing that Indians take more satisfaction in their work than their peers in the US, the UK, France and Germany.

Monster, a jobs website, teamed up with market research company GfK to survey 8,000 people in seven countries. It found that 55 per cent of respondents in India “love” their job or “like it a lot” and only 5 per cent “hate it” or “don’t like it”."

"Go back a couple of decades and the Hong Kong stock exchange was something of a joke in global terms with just a handful of listings. Just look at it today. A similar transformation could occur in the United Arab Emirates in a much shorter period as hundreds of candidates for initial public offerings start to line-up.

Yesterday ArabianMoney took part in the Dubai Financial Market’s closed conference for such candidates. We can’t report directly on the confidential proceedings. But we can explain the background to what is going on in the UAE and where it may lead in the near future."

"For foreign nationals and UK expatriates owning homes in the UK as a safe haven there is going to be a nasty sting in the tail as finance minister George Osbourne is planning to tax the capital gains of non-residents when they sell UK houses, according to The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

At present non-residents only pay the four to seven per cent transfer fees on UK property. Now they will face 28 per cent capital gains tax on the increase in value since they bought it. The precise details of the tax have yet to be announced."

DUBAI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - From cosmetics to accommodation, travel to toothpaste, complying with religious principles is becoming big business in the Muslim world, and Dubai, better known for flamboyance and unrestrained consumerism than Islamic scholarship, sees an opportunity.

The emirate is mounting the world's first systematic drive to profit from "halal" goods and services by setting global standards for them and providing certification where the standards are met.

In January Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced plans to make the emirate a centre of the "Islamic economy". Next week, Dubai will host a conference on the subject that it is expected to attract over 2,000 officials, businessmen and consumers from around the world."

"A former senior executive at the Bahraini aluminium smelter Alba, the fourth-largest in the world, told a London court on Tuesday there was a "parallel universe of corruption" at the top of the state-controlled firm during his time there.

South African Jeremy Nottingham, who was deputy chief executive at Alba from 1998 to 2004, was speaking as a prosecution witness in the bribery trial of British-Canadian businessman Victor Dahdaleh.

The trial involves allegations of corruption at senior levels of government and business in Bahrain, a sensitive issue at a time when the Sunni ruling dynasty's authority is being disputed by sporadic protests from within the Shi'ite majority."

"Against a backdrop of rising investor confidence, a group of leading international investors will attend a major investment forum in Cairo on Dec. 4-5.

The organizers will also welcome delegates from Egypt, the GCC and the wider global economy. Together they will provide a platform to establish clear solutions for how to progress amidst the challenges of the current economic environment. The Forum is the next step toward further strengthening economic relations between Egypt and the GCC countries. For Saudi Arabia specifically, the event is a means to further boosting relations in various sectors following the September visit of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal to Egypt.

The two-day forum will open with remarks from Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State of the United Arab Emirates and Osama Saleh, Minister of Investment of the Arab Republic of Egypt. In addition, keynote addresses will be given by Hazem El-Beblawi, Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt and Dr Ziad Baha El-Din Deputy Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt. "

"The chief executive of Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, The National Investor (TNI), has resigned and a replacement is yet to be named, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Orhan Osmansoy, who joined TNI in 2004, was instrumental in expanding the company into a regional investment firm, operating in private equity, investment advisory and asset management businesses.

However the company was hard hit during the global financial crisis. It shed dozens of jobs - more than half of its workforce - last year as, like a number of rival Middle Eastern investment firms, it struggled to boost revenue and remain profitable in depressed capital markets."

"Noor Islamic Bank, a Dubai-based lender that abides by Sharia principles, said it had started offering mortgages for non-UAE residents in the GCC and most G20 countries to tap a burgeoning international interest in Dubai real estate.

The offering, which began several months ago, has been particularly well received by residents of Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries, said John Chang, the head of consumer banking at Noor Islamic. The so-called profit rate, the equivalent of interest rates at conventional banks, is 5.75 per cent for non-residents.

Mr Chang downplayed concerns that a bubble may be forming in the property market in Dubai, with prices increasing more than 30 per cent this year."

"Another week, another award for Mubasher Financial Services. Its chief executive Malek Kanawati must have developed some serious upper arm strength from picking up so many glittering prizes over recent months.

In what has generally been regarded as the toughest of markets following the financial crisis, the trading firm appears to have recognised a business opportunity in the difficulties of others, and has grown market share and added new markets at an impressive rate.

Many firms in Dubai closed down their businesses because the volumes simply did not justify the costs. But Mubasher stayed in there, and that investment appears to have paid off in terms of market share and breadth of business."

"When the Indian stock markets hit record highs in the first few days of November, while there was expected euphoria, there was also some concern raised about whether the rally would be sustainable in what is still an uncertain economic environment, especially in the context of run up to the general election in 2014. And so, for those who missed the ride and profits which came with it as well as for the ones who are still invested, what are the opportunities, if any, going ahead?

Propelled by a big surge in foreign capital inflow, the markets have seen a remarkable turnaround in the last two months, though in the last couple of weeks, they have been volatile and witnessed a few days of declines.
“ Initially the consumer staples and IT stocks were the only ones doing well. Healthcare stocks have joined them. Telecom stocks are relatively doing better ”

Gulf Islamic funds have bucked the global trend of declining assets under management (AUM) in the same space in the past few years, according to Thomson Reuters Global Islamic Asset Management Report 2014.
Assets under management of GCC Islamic funds have been increasing, post global financial crisis and the 2011 political turmoil in the Arab world, even though AUM have been decreasing for the global Islamic fund industry, the report states.
While Islamic funds globally have doubled since 2007, the AUM have marginally gone up in the last few years, and have in fact declined 1.7 per cent in 2013. The full report will be released next week at the Global Islamic Economy summit in Dubai."

"Africa editor Javier Blas speaks to Joyce Banda, president of Malawi, about a corruption scandal involving the loss of millions of dollars of public funds, and the economic impact of suspended aid payments on one of Africa's poorest countries.

"Despite criticism that not enough has been done to punish those responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, US regulatory correspondent Kara Scannell tells John Authers that JPMorgan's agreement to pay a collection of fines is a very complicated legal process.

"Egypt’s natural-gas shipments are set to drop by about half this year, undermining the military led-government’s attempts to stabilize the largest economy in North Africa.
Eni SpA (ENI) and BG Group Plc (BG/), international oil companies with investments in Egyptian export terminals, said a policy that encourages gas consumption at home, caps prices and has left the state owing $6 billion to producers is holding back investment in new fields. Egypt is set to fall behind Equatorial Guinea to fourth place among Africa’s gas exporters this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The dilemma for Egypt’s new leaders is that the nation’s thirst for cheap gas leaves little scope to pare back subsidies that cost 7.3 percent of gross domestic product. While the state is starting to repay the debt owed to gas producers, the country will find it hard to win new investment into its country’s largest export industry until price limits are raised, Eni Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said."